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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A couple of days back a friend visited the library here and came back thrilled. He seemed visibly exhilarated. That kinda tempted me too.

In my childhood, I used to visit libraries quite often. Especially in my 5th - 8th standards. Hardy boys / Archies / Asterix / etc used to keep me awake every night. We used to live in Choolaimedu then. And my books were sourced from my school's library and from a public lending library (A C Samy lending library on Choolaimedu High Road. Anyone seen that?). I used to swell in happiness every time I walked into one of these two buildings. They definitely would fit the cliched description of "well-equipped". Kept me well fed/read week after week for nearly 4 years!

The very smell of oldddd books used to give me a high! And the sight of them things lying in a beautiful array that looked very symmetrical despite the dog-ears only added to the effect. My heartbeat would get faster as my fingers would run around looking for that particular book in the series, and I would let out a silent whoop every time I succeeded in finding the book I wanted. The sheer joy one gets when checking a book out and walking out impatiently sneaking peeks inside is priceless.

As I walked into the big library here at IIMB, all these thoughts rushed back to me. The rows and rows of yellowing books pulled me back by a decade to my childhood.

And the smell! Ah..

Sadly, the library was largely empty. In this wi-fi enabled campus, with life on the fast lane, who will want to do things the library way. Google has spelt doom for these timeless structures. But as I flipped through books and found that they had been around in the same place even before I was born, it gave me an inexplicable thrill.

9 comments:

Friends and I were discussing about libraries when everyone else claimed buying a book cheap at t nagar is way better than borrowing.I still visit the library and still borrow the very old tattered yellow books.Thrills it gives and pleasure it provides-nah!nothing can beat that. (Will check out the choolaimedu library someday).You forgot the exchange of books with friends in the pretext of saving money.You are right.Those days..

P.S.-the only thing that annoys me is the fine I pay each time-exceeds the amount I pay to get the book..grr..

Good post :) it made me feel nostalgic . i remember cycling to library during my school days at cuddalore . Every sunday three of us will meet there , spend time reading books and then chat for a while . It was good xperience.gud post vsh :)